Into The Darkness
by Aslan1
Summary: Xander is about to be claimed- as the hunter becomes the hunted


From: Aslan (aslan_g@lycos.com)  
  
Title: Into The Darkness  
  
Series/Sequel: Not yet.  
  
Author: Aslan  
  
E-mail: aslan_g@lycos.com  
  
Rating: R  
  
Summary: Xander is about to be claimed- as the hunter becomes the hunted.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the BTVS Characters, Joss Whedon, UPN and Mutant Enemy own them, etc. I only own the story and any original characters I create along the way.  
  
Distribution: If you want it, please ask. And let me know where it is.  
  
Feedback: Does Riley love cows? Laws yes!  
  
Spoilers: None really.  
  
Author's Note: Betaed by Krac and by a few people on the Xanderbetareaders list whose names escape me at the moment. Sorry.  
  
  
  
Part Two: Into the Darkness  
  
Sound is carrying well tonight, he knows he's being followed now. I can see it in the tensing of his back and the new hesitation in his once sure footsteps. Will he run, or will he turn to face me. The voice is whimpering inside of my mind, crying out in desire for this valiant mortal. Right now, I want to claim him more than I want anything else in this world. I don't know which fuels my desire for him more the fact that he belongs to the slayer or the goodness that hides behind those bottomless mocha eyes. I've been trying to stay within the shadows, the cool darkness that surrounds us both. It gives me strength while keeping me out of sight beneath the lush springtime foliage that lines the walk but as he stops I know that now is the time to make my move. To take what has been left unclaimed for far too long. He should be a god or a devil…Maybe tonight I will make him both.  
  
It's time. He's turning…very slowly to face me. I begin the low chant I memorized years, or was it decades before… The same spell I used upon the Watcher, the night that Angelus and Spike were lost to me once and for all. As my fingertips slide sensuously through my elegant raven locks they turn a particular shade of blonde, I already feel dirty. Now instead of an enemy, he will see a friend…Someone he loves. The guards will lay down, and the weapons will be sheathed…he will be vulnerable…He will be mine. He smiles as I step out of the darkness before him…He seems so relieved, I almost feel guilty. Almost. His anger from earlier subsides, he just can't stay angry with his Slayer…The blonde goddess. It makes me nauseous…I feel like I've been wrapped in the skin of a snake. But all he does is smile...He is so beautiful I ache. The moment shatters as he calls to me.  
  
"Jeez, Are you trying to give me a heart attack, Buff!"  
  
"It's late, I just wanted to make sure you got home all right." I smile, at least I hope it's a smile…Smiling is new to me.  
  
He smiles too…Suddenly I remember what basking in the sun felt like. Once upon a time…and I curse the slayer for her stupidity, for her carelessness…for her fear. To hurt one of such beauty should be a crime…but her punishment shall come. In the life of this particular Slayer, I have become judge, jury and executioner…I feel my power over her grow as he moves toward me. He is defenseless against my glamour, against me. I will take what is hers and feast upon her pain as if it were ambrosia itself.  
  
But I am still unsure as to how to proceed. He is beautiful and innocent…So pure… I can't seem to make up my mind…What will cause the Slayer more pain. Will the bitch cry more if I pin his dead body to her front door, or would turning him…embracing him to the darkness she is destined to fight be a more suitable punishment? Corrupting the innocent is always fun, but I can almost see her face as she stumbles across his dead body…broken and bloody, left as a gift and a curse. Her pathetic little expression would be priceless. Because In death there would be no return, nothing they could do to bring back their fallen angel. If I turn him…Well… they still have the curse…and bless her necrophilial little heart the slayer is almost as deviant as the things she was chosen to destroy. Which means they could still manage to 'correct' things if the boy was turned. But still…I am unsure of how to proceed. Miss Edith wants her boy…I just want to watch the slayer beg, or die…both actually.  
  
The slayer's wheedling voice escapes my mouth as I address him, hoping he senses nothing amiss. "Can, I walk you home, Xand?"  
  
The light that is his smile turns up a few notches as he nods, happily accepting my offer. He attempts a gallant bow and presses warm fingers to the inside of my wrist…I barely have time to hide the quiver of pure pleasure his touch invokes. But the slayer would never react so neither can I. He has such strong hands, but also so gentle and warm…very nice. The soft kiss he presses upon my hand is unexpected. My mind is spinning hopelessly now. As he begins to walk I follow, keeping close to his side our arms linked in friendship when it is anything but…My first taste of lust in almost a hundred years is brought forth by a mere mortal. I almost can't believe it.  
  
The walk is interminably short and I have come to no decisions. My mind is always in a constant state of war…Voices talking, interrupting fighting for some kind of control…Now it is reaching a crescendo, thoughts and desires warring against one another, I am left confused and a little lost…two emotions I have hated for all my lives. So I am very grateful for the companionable silence in which we walk. I watch him from beneath long dark lashes slightly curled…He is searching the stars above with a fascinated gaze. I find myself wanting to know what he is looking for…Answers? To what? The secret of life or just the secret of his? Answers about suffering and pain, about why the good suffer while evil prospers from the blood of those selfsame innocents? Or about how you can love someone your whole life without them ever seeing who you truly are…About how much that can hurt, and make you hate. We reach our destination much more quickly than I had hoped. He leads me to the basement entrance and awkwardly shuffles from foot to foot. I must admit, I love to make men squirm…And this one is special, I see that now. Or maybe I've always seen it…I'm unsure now. He is magic.  
  
I find myself uncharacteristically…for the slayer at least…out of words. I have no idea what to say and he is unlocking that basement door. If he gets inside…I will lose him. My voice is keening inside my head, begging, pleading, and screaming to do something, anything to get an invitation inside that house.  
  
Then the door swings open and he moves inside a little…And to my great relief something takes over and that sickeningly sweet voice issues forth, stopping us both in our tracks…So simple, so straightforward…so like the Slayer. "Aren't you going to invite me in, Xand?"  
  
And he does.  
  
"Sure, C'mon in. My basement is your basement. Want a drink?" I step forward a grin tugging at the corners of my mouth…Elation rushing through my body in waves. I am a witch am I not? If anyone could come up with a way to keep them from using that damned gypsy curse on my boy, would it not be me? Behind me the door swings shut of it's own accord…Almost unnaturally.  
  
I think I just made up my mind. And suddenly not even the slayer could wipe the grin from my face.  
  
I've already won. She just doesn't know it yet…But she will. Suddenly Sunnydale feels a little more like home, and I feel like putting down some roots. And what better way to put down some roots than by making a childe…As he turns his back to me, I can feel my face change and a predatory grin alights my lips…The guards are definitely down now.  
  
As my arms of steel surround him he makes no sound. He sees my true face and I can see the acceptance in his warm chocolate eyes. He sees this as destiny, I am not about to disabuse him of this notion. No begging, no crying, no hysterics…just a resignation born of pain, alienation and loneliness. I want to make this as painless for him as possible, I want to keep him safe and warm…Above all I want him to see that he is wanted…needed even. He is magic. With my blood I will give him a new life. All the darkness and pain of the past will die with his mortal body, what I give him tonight is a clean slate…And Immortality of course…And me. I feel my fangs break through the smooth skin of his neck and I taste his blood… So sweet and warm, coppery and rich sliding down my throat in a sensuous deluge.  
  
He loses the power to stand on his own and falls against me heavily, but I am so strong it doesn't even jar me. He doesn't break my hold or even pry my fangs from their place buried deeply within his flesh. I hold him tightly but tenderly, in a lover's embrace. I know some vampires create fledglings at the drop of a hat… it was the same way with me once. Something so easily done and just as easily undone with a stake whenever my whims changed. But in the last few years, with my returning clarity it has become something more. Something primal and dare I say, sexual. I see it now as akin to taking a lover. It is something intimate…Sharing blood, sharing power…Even more intimate than sex, because you hold so much more of that person in your hands. Right now I have the power to make or break Xander Harris in the palm of my hands and in my mouth…so to speak. But I don't want to break him…I want to tie him so tightly to me that no one and nothing will ever be able to pull us apart. Not the slayer, not Spike, the Watcher or even Angelus…No one to come between us. No One Ever.  
  
He's fading now, I can feel his sweet heart beating slower, his breath coming more raggedly from his weakening lungs. I pull away, but as I lose such intimate contact with his body I ache. Gently brushing the dark hair from his eyes I touch his face glorying in the contact…Knowing what is to come. I unbutton my shirt and with razor-sharp nails make an incision above my right breast. Then I pull him into my arms so I can position his mouth above the cut where the fresh blood is already welling up to meet his lax lips. Within moments he is feeding from that dark well and I sigh against his soft hair…I will create no mere fledgling tonight… I will make my lover powerful beyond belief and then we will set this town to burn.  
  
And the Slayer be damned, If she tries to stop us. 


End file.
